Angus Macfadyen: Got a script. Read it. Went pretty fast actually. Read it, liked it. Met the two guys and we were on.

Q: What was the big draw for you in playing Jeff?

Macfadyen: You go, "Oh, horror film. I'm either going to be the really nasty killer or the hapless victim running around?" But happily it was sort of neither of those two, which was kind of interesting, I thought. Here was a guy who was put in a situation and it's happening to people and he can do something about it and does he want to? It's the whole moral question that I found sort of, "Oh, I don't have to be in the chair for six hours putting on huge gobs of make-up and stuff."

Q: Are you a fan of horror movies?

Macfadyen: I like certain horror movies.

Q: Hardcore?

Macfadyen: Not so much. My thing is psychological realism, especially with horror. If you're going to sell these things you're going to have to do it right and you can't cheat. You can't cheat the emotions and you can't cheat that psychological terror. And the other ones I like are films like The Exorcist or The Shining. There's always a sort of religious element to certain horror films, which I think sort of puts it on a certain other level because, really, horror's dealing with our own fears of mortality and death and what is that all about? The good ones.

Q: With all the heavy stuff that you're dealing with in the movie, was it a fun time making it?

Macfadyen: [chuckles] The Chinese have that proverb, "May you live in interesting times." I think it was sort of an interesting time. You can't really say it was fun because people have different ways of dealing with all that. It's dark, you know? So people have ways of joking about it to keep it light for themselves. My job really is to go in and represent the psychological, realistic side of it so I have to kind of stay focused at some level. So 12 hours a day, I had to have a certain respect for that state and kind of stay focused on that and not let the valve go "psst!" and let out a bit of steam.

Q: So what scares you? What terrifies you?

Macfadyen: Sharks. Damn Steven Spielberg. [laughter]

Angus Macfayden (L) and director Darren Lynn Bousman (R) on the set.

Q: You've played a lot of historical figures. Is your approach the same in playing them as opposed to someone fictitious?

Macfadyen: Well, you can do all the reading of books of stuff of real characters, which is great fun because there's actually something to do for four weeks before you go off to do the film. You're always looking for a book to read so suddenly you've got 10 books and you can look into stuff. But this kind of thing there's nothing like that, so it's really just showing up and being emotionally available, I guess. So read a lot of self-help before you go on set.

Q: Did you like your character?

Macfadyen: Did I like him?

Q: He has hesitations when he could help people.

Macfadyen: Yeah, well, I think it's kind of set up in the film that even though you think he could save them, even when he tries to, it's set-up so it all seems a little too late. That was something we were discussing was how long do you wait and pause? Because if you've done that in one room, you know you can't do that in the next because otherwise it's going to be too late for that person. So we were having lots of debates. And also because each scene, you can't play them all the same. You've got to build in each one. So did I like him? I don't think he liked himself very much.

Q: Were you a fan of the other two Saw movies?

Macfadyen: Yeah, the first one I liked and I liked the concept of it. The second one was going on that and taking it somewhere else but the third one is the one that really surprised me because I was wondering, "What can they really do to improve on those?" I was surprised by it.

Q: The violence in the first film was more suggested. This one is really graphic. Do you like that change? Suggestion vs. showing?

Macfadyen: Yeah, I would say it is much more powerful to show the effect of what is happening on the person's face or on someone who is witnessing it. It's much more disturbing.